Battle of Waterloo: French Cavalry Charge

A little before 16:00, Ney noted an apparent exodus from Wellington's centre. He mistook the movement of casualties to the rear for the beginnings of a retreat, and sought to exploit it. Following the defeat of d'Erlon's Corps, Ney had few infantry reserves left, as most of the infantry been committed either to the futile Hougoumont attack or to the defence of the French right. Ney therefore tried to break Wellington's centre with cavalry alone. Wellington's army responded by forming squares (hollow box-formations four ranks deep).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Waterloo#The_French_cavalry_attack
From the movie Waterloo.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066549/

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• waterloo
• battle
• napoleon
• wellington
• war
• napoleonic
• musket

[ThisNameWasntUs3d]

And, too conclude, Ney was a spanner

[BigDon62]

My ! The Soviet forces were most impressive extras in this movie.

[Dojocho]

yes but Ney did not do basic tatical advance to exploit a enemy with artillary and infantry support.....this is what made Nap upset Ney always thought that fearless or foolhardy action can overcome sound tatics..it worked for him at times but at waterloo it didnt...

[Fishfingers232]

@slizzler1 Prussian?

[slizzler1]

@Fishfingers232

More than half the squares attacked by the cavalry charges were not British. Factually.

[slizzler1]

@oarfrost

Yes- but recall, that Ney only launched the first half of the cavalry charges -and with the actual approval of Napoleon; this fact is not mentioned. The movie keeps the myth going that Napoleon never knew about Ney's charges from the start.

Napoleon personally launched the second half of the cavalry charges.

During these charges Wellington's losses in his center became alarming. In between charges the Allied squares were getting eroded by French artillery.

Not so pointless

[expertstrategy]

@12345668587, Massena was close to defeating Wellington at the Battle of Fuentos De Onoro. He ordered the Horse Grenadiers of the Guard under Louis Lepic to make a charge, but the commander refused to obey Massena's orders. He only recognized Bessieres as his superior. The opportunity to deal a decisive blow to Wellington was gone.

[12345668587]

@12345668587 But the only problem was that they failed to take the advantage of destroying Wellington.This was clearly a case of Bleinhiem, 1704, the campagin went excatly like Ney and Massena's retreat from Spain and Salamanca proved it for the French.

[12345668587]

@oarfrost He wasn't, despite his bravery, he must have misunderstood the actions of the English when they were retreating. But Ney , in dangerous times, especially in Russia, proved his worth.

[12345668587]

@oarfrost Yes, Indeed, I am. Ney and Massena had won battles against Wellington, and I will show them: brusquely defeated the British on the River Côa, and fought at Buçaco. During the retreat from Torres Vedras, Ney worsted Wellington's forces in a series of lauded rearguard actions (Pombal, Redinha, Casal Novo, Foz d'Aronce) with which he delayed the pursuing enemy forces enough to allow the main French force to retreat unmolested. You see, he was a not a good commander.

[oarfrost]

@slizzler1 Now that is interesting. 12345668587 may be referring to Ney, who beat the British at the Battle of the River Côa. The British were in the wrong place and out numbered, so they fell back. Ney who was the bravest of the brave but not necessarily the brightest, might have been expecting them to do the same thing at Waterloo, hence the massive and largely pointless cavalry charges.

[slizzler1]

@12345668587

I couldn't find which comment of mine you were replying to. Can you copy paste it again here for me to see?